Star dust and Starberry start trotting to the set of ruined buildings and gunfire. "Stay here." star says to starberry as he leans on the wall and peeks around a corner.

"EAT EXPLOSIONS!!" Jerome tosses another metal apple at the giant lizard like monster that is after him as it tries to grab him with its tongue.

Star dust goes wide eyed as another EVEN BIGGER version of the mutant towers over behind him and has starberry tied up in its tail."...Oh shit." star dust runs and runs into the one Jerome is facing.and now both lizard mutants turn and stare at star dust before hissing and rising,towering 20 whole feet above him and the mother towers 10 more feet than the regular adult lizard. "Oh fuck me."

"STAR,RUN!!" Jerome throws a metal apple at the mother but it doesn't do much other then annoy her and smack him with her tail.

Just as star is about to get chomped on 6 extremely loud shots ring through the roars and screeches of the lizards and with each shot one of them gets a new bloody hole in its neck and once the 6th shot rings out they both fall to their sides and starberry falls out of the mother's tail and gasps for breath.

"OH SWEET NELLY FRESH AIR!!!"

"Who did that?" Jerome jumps down from the second floor of the building he was in and he and star dust both notice a tan coated unicorn wearing a long black duster coat and a fedora on his head and is carrying a big heavy magnum in his green telekinetic grip as he spits out the cigarette he was smoking and a group of other ponies dressed in reinforced,bigger combat armor are behind them as a horde of smaller versions of the lizards come out screeching and sprinting towards the tan pony that has a brown mane and they all get gunned down by the ponies in combat armor.

Star dust looks at the corpses of the lizards before going to the pony. "Wow,uhh thanks." He says with a smile.

"Its our job,don't mention it." The tan pony puts his gun into his coat before lifting his hat slightly. "And i already know who you are,your star dust the pony who gunned down the road campers,nice job,my name is Douglass by the way,you can just call me Doug."

"Doug? thats a strange name." as soon as star finished that sentence Douglass gives him a look of annonce. "ssssorry."

"Its alright,listen,as much as i would love to help you find your other friends,i need to go." He says while relaying his team and runs off before his horn glows and he teliports.

Star dust goes wide eyed when he teliports . "W-what the fuck?!?"

"Wow he must have some pretty impressive magic..." Stareberry tries not to look impressed and Jerome is too busy looking for James to pay attention.

"ELLO?!?! IM IN HERE!!!" A wood cabinet is shaking. "IM STUCK!!"

Jerome chuckles as he breaks James out. "Their can you breath now?"

"Yea...yea thanks" James gets up and picks up his gun again.

Starberry chuckles then speaks up. "Alright everypony ah say we split up."

Jerome gives her a uneasy stare. "Why?"

She gives him a stare back. "Because...ah heard their were slaver and raider camps near this locations and if ahm readin the land marks correctly,stayin in a group means ether raiders jumped us we get rapped,or slavers jump us and we get ENSLAVED...then rapped."

"AND HOW THE HELL IS SPLITTING UP GOING TO HELP WITH THAT?!?" Starberry shoves a hoof into Jerome's mouth before he can shout again.

"They know where we are and soon their going to be comin here to see what the gun fire was about,they'd be able to tell if a group was here but not if we split up and confuse em...ya know what? lets just ask star."

Star dust looks at everypony,a little shocked. "M-me? why?"

"Well,ya'll are the security pony after all,didn't they teach ya how ta make tough decisions?" The red mare replies,hopping for good news.

"N-no they didn't...but they DID teach me how to improvise." Star dust sat on his haunches and began thinking. "uhhh...okay starberry and Jerome go east,Jerome will use his pip buck so while your moving,once you get out of the danger zone Jerome will use his pip buck to lead you toooo-." He pauses to check the map on his pip buck. "New applehoosa,i'll go west which is a further away approach and James will-."

"I'll go north,i already know my way around the wastes pluse i have wi- hold on one bloody second,your going alone?" James nearly goes wide eyed from the thought of a stable dweller that nearly died going through more danger alone.

Jerome looks at star a bit worried. "Star you know thats suicide."

"Yea i know...but remember this:i have the wings and armor here and from what i can tell west is closer to the phantom village so if im ever in a pinch...or just desperate,i can try running to their...besides its only for around a day,im sure you can last."

"Ahm not sure,west is where the lizards and raiders are most common,some of the raiders are even tammin em...not very good but still gettin close." Starberry looks west and has a look of worry.

"...Welp...if i don't see you in new appleoosa in 2 days just assume im dead and move on,ok?"

"First off:fuck no,i'll be coming to find you,we came from the same stable and i am not going to leave your body to rot and secondly:if your going alone at least take some of the stuff i looted from the ponies that jumped us." Jerome slips open his saddle bag making star dust go wide eyed when he sees:a hunting rifle in decent condition,3 metal apple,a pair of ballistic power hooves in usable condition but wont last long in a close quarters firefight,6 bottles that have a strange liquid in them that Jerome personally labeled "health potions" and the thing that catches his eye the most is a scope and muzzle attachment too big for any normal pistol. "take your p-."

"You stole from the dead?" Star dust nearly looks sick.

"...listen here star,ah know your from a stable but yer friend here has the right idea,to survive ya'll need food,medicine and good gear and the only way to get those without probably the worlds most amazing luck is by looting those who have em,its not stealing from the dead its looting what ya got from yer attackers,its the law of the wasteland,ahm sorry if it sickens ya'll."

"...No...no its alright." Star dust takes 3 of the health potion,a metal apple and the 2 attachments. "...What the buck are these things?...hey wait." Star dust takes out his pistol and puts on the attachments onto it and they fit perfectly. "Well well,a 11 shooting heavy pistol with a scope...whats the muzzle for?"

James smiles,knowing the answer to this question. "For most guns it reduces spread but for this gun it gives a slight chance the bullet will be flaming and makes it so the bullet doesn't drop off,not a one hundred percent chance to hit its target but defiantly a significant increase."

"Oh well holy shit this is going to be useful." Star dust examines the silver and blue muzzle that has a matching pattern to the rest of the gun and scope and the scope has the image of a moon and the gun itself,a image of the sun on their sides and the muzzle has a image of a lightning cloud,all of which made in blue,in the middle of patterns different kinds:a cloud of stars around the sun,butterflies around the moon and wings around the thunder cloud all on their respectable objects in blue with hits of silver of the gun around and between them. "Hmmm...this gun looks like its attachments are missing parts...if those ponies who jumped us had some...and i got this from one of the ponies that attacked our stable...aaahhh shit i think we may have attracted their attention then...good."

"Good? HOW IS THAT GOOD?!?!" Jerome hears star say that and panics before starberry shoves a straw berry into his mouth,making him chew on it and slowly calm down.

"Alright,lets get going,we'll meet at new appleoosa." Before anypony can say a word star dust is already galloping off to the west with his gun in his holster and pure energy in his heart from getting new useful attachments for his gun and now having a explosive he can use to blow something up.

Star dust finds himself sneaking around cover from a group of ponies that look like slavers and he can tell because they have some chained up ponies with them which makes star dust's blood boil to the point where his hooves nearly turn red and his body generates enough heat to boil up a fresh batch of tea.

"Stay calm,can't be seen,stay calm,can't be seen." He keeps mumbling to himself as he hides behind a destroyed automatic chariot that still has some old fuel in it. "Grrrr.AH FUCK IT!!!!" One of the slavers jumps as he sees a blue blur come out of the car and when he goes behind the car with 2 of the other 10 slavers all they find is a metal apple and before they can get the first swear word out it explodes taking them and 3 other nearby slavers out in the massive,magic explosion.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!?!?!" The leader of the slaver blurts out as he pulls out his gun with the rest and the slave ponies squeak in panic,thinking their about to get shot.

"...Hello." Star is behind a large boulder and all they here is his greetings before a loud thundering bang that sounds like a gun crafted by celestia was fired by god and it shoots pure lunar awesomeness causes one of the slavers entire torsos to be blasted into giblets,splattering onto the hill just like the limbs and guts of the ones caught in the explosion.

One of the more paranoid slavers gulps and curls up and screams."AAAHHH,PLEAS DON'T SHOOT US!!"

'how the hell am i doing this?...oh,right im pissed off and my best ideas and plans come when im pissed.' Star dust peeks around the corner only to find the two slavers gone. "Huh,did i scare them off?"

"...behind you" One of the slaves whispers.

"heh?" Star dust turns around just in time to move his head to the side before he gets stabbed and grabs the slaver's cloths from the side with his hooves and bite his horn,making him scream as he slams him down into the ground and immediately after that,before he can finish the slaver with a bullet to the head he gets shot in the back as it hits his armor and sinks in but doesn't do more then punch his skin only making him yelp,turn around and use his wings to propel himself backwards.

"Aaahhh sh-." Before the pony could finish his face gets hit by star dust's back as he drops his gun and falls back to the ground.

As star rolls onto his hooves with his gun in his mouth and the slavers gun directly under him,he faces the two slavers one with a knife and the other completely unarmed and wearing only the same cloths as the one with a knife. "I am the pony with a gun here,so i suggest you just drop all you got and give me the keys to the slaves." The slavers look at each other as the slaves gulp and shiver.

"...Alright were not stupid,we know when we've lost." The unicorn slaver says as he starts trying to levitate the gun under star dust as he uses the levitating knife to keep it from looking suspicious. "We'll go,just give me a...second." As he puts his knife down he aims the gun up at star dust's neck as he waits.

"UNDER YOU!!" A slave jumps up and points under him but before he can react 2 gun shots burst through the air and the slaves all close their eyes as they think it was the gun aiming for star.

"...what the fuck?" The gun that was under star stopped floating and star dust hasn't even pulled the trigger as he looks at the two headless stumps that were the slavers and the horn from the unicorn is laying next to the body,rolling.

"Rule 1:never trust a slaver,shoot to kill if you don't want to become a slave." The tan pony named "Douglass" says as he loads up his sniper and puts it on his back. "Only you nearly got shot,just be glad i saved your ass...again..."

"oh uhh thanks...im surprised to see you again." Star dust puts his gun in his holster as he goes to the bodes and hesitantly starts looting the knife and other supplies from the dead bodies of the slavers.

"Im not,i have a feeling were going to cross paths quiet a few times,im just hopping our paths have similar goals and nether will have bad intentions." Douglass goes over to the slaves and as star dust gets the key he starts working on the collars,deactivating them with such ease it makes star dust's jaw drop for a moment.

"u-uhhh alright...alright." He goes next to Douglass and unlocks the shackles one by one.

"T-thank you...both of you..." A slave mare says with a smile as she then gallops away and each slave gives them a thanks and all thats left is the shackles laying on the floor like a big metal snake.

"You did the right thing you know,i saw how you tried taking down those slavers to free the slaves...hehe i also saw how your face boiled like a tea pot when you saw the slaves." Douglass smiles and turns to star dust. "I hope you'll stick to the way you are now,if so then im glad the wasteland has a new hero..."

"Oh im no hero...but if thats what it takes to keep my stable safe then thats what i'll become..." Star dust smiles back at him as he nods. 'although...if i have to...i'll become the opposite if im left with no other choice.' he thinks to himself.

"Alright...be careful out their." Douglass's horn glows as he walks away and teliports ,amazing star again that he even knows such a spell,

Star dust keeps trotting west,checking his pip buck occasionally to make sure he isn't lost but then notices the sun is going down and he has nowhere to stay and he has also just noticed that their is a camp of raiders on a cliff just a little bit away from his path.

'...I could ether keep moving in the dark...or kill them and sleep their...KILLING THEM IT IS!!' He thinks with glee before stopping just as he pulls out his gun and gets ready to shoot the very first pony. '...Am i...excited about killing?...no no its not that their...their bad ponies,yea thats it.' He thinks to try and justify his motive to kill as he takes aim...bang

Star dust sits down next to a fire,near the bodies of raiders which he gunned down just minutes before as he looks into the fire and just thinks for a moment. 'i just gunned down a camp of ponies...they were hostile...my pip buck says so...they were raiders...my pip buck says so...and i didn't even give them a chance to fight back...i killed them all before they even drew out a gun...i-i can't be thinking about this kind of stuff,i need some rest.' He shakes his head as he checks the loot he got from the ponies that consists of:a shotgun with 6 shells,2 strange looking metal apples that are made out of something resembling magic,some food mostly sugar apple bombs and some apples and pears,2 bottles of magic water and some caps and paper money which he kept both because star dust hordes when hes nervous,he then looks at writing on the wall that reads "beware the phantom stallion" and under it is what looks like the outline of the tan pony that saved him twice before. "Phantom stallion? thats what they call him?...alright...goodnight phantom stallion." Star dust lays down,closes his eyes and falls asleep.